I have a Java application that I'd like to distribute as a virtual machine appliance image (ovf or ova) for VMware and VirtualBox using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. The image would include the operating system itself, required OS packages, my Java application, all pre-configured and ready-to-run when powered on.
What's the best way to create OVF and OVA files?
I have been working with VirtualBox some and do not feel expert, but here is what I would do.
Download the 14.04 LTS iso image from Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
Build a VM in VirtualBox using the New button. This will be the template for your Appliance.
Give it a catchy name like "Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64amd for Java App". Type should be "Linux" and Version should be "Ubuntu (64 bit) or (32 bit) as appropriate.
Set the amount of RAM necessary.
Click the Create a virtual hard drive now button. Click the Create button. I believe that VMDK Type will help with portability. Select dynamically allocated (makes a smaller ova file), especially if you intend to distribute the ova files. Give the disk image a name and the size that you desire, I think 10GB would be minimum. Click the Create button.
Next select your VM and Click Settings to get the settings window.
Select Storage and then select the Icon for the CD/DVD disk. On the right, click the CD-ROM icon and locate the Ubuntu 14.04 amd 64 iso file that you downloaded. Click okay.
Then click the start button from the main window .
The VM should boot to the ISO DVD image that is in the virtual CD/DVD drive. Respond to all of the prompts. Save the username and password for later.
When the build is done and Ubuntu boots to the virtual harddrive, then apply all new updates: (you will need your password created earlier)
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
Then after the reboot, use the "Devices" menu at the top of the VirtualBox window for your VM to "Insert Guest Additions CD Image ..." to install the extras that makes the Ubuntu image work better in the VirtualBox environment.
Now install all of the Java extras and your applications. I can't say much here.
Lastly, using the File > Export Appliances menu option, select your VM from the list and Click Next. I usually accept the format OVF 1.0 and Click Next. Fill in the settings information with links to your support web page if available. I have seen people put the username / password information in the description field for distribution. Then Click Export.
You should have a new OVA VirtualBox Appliance.
Related
I have a VMWare Player virtual machine where I am trying to change partitions of my Windows 7 VM hardrive using GParted. I downloaded a GParted live CD from here. I tried this with both *-i686 and *-amd64 versions.
The problem is that VMWare Player VM does not detect the bootable ISO at all. I added the ISO file like this. When I run the VM and check its setting then CD/DVD (SATA) has a checkmark next to it so I presume it is connected. But the ISO is nowhere to be found when I try to change boot order in PhoenixBIOS. So I cannot run GParted to change partitions.
I´ve already checked that both *-i686 and *-amd64 ISO files are bootable with MagicISO.
Has anyone dealt with this? I´ve tried both my Windows 7 VM and Ubuntu VM. In both I went into PhoenixBIOS and results were the same.
After installing Ubuntu 18.04 on Virtual Box 6.1 the screen is small and we are unable to install Guest Additions.
If you try to access the mounted guest additions ISO image directly, you get mount errors.
Changing the Screen resolution of the Ubuntu worked for me.
Go to Displays Setting and change Resolution.
On the internet people are giving different solutions that could end up corrupting the installed guest OS. After trying multiple times to have the screen size resolved with Ubuntu 18.04, Virtual Box 6.1 running on Windows 10, here are exact steps that will help:
Make sure to install VirtualBox Extension pack from -
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
Opt to do "normal installation" with following selected - "Download updates while installing Ubuntu" and "Install third-party software for graphics and Wi-fi hardware and additional media formats"
After installation, system will restart but the screen will be small
IMPORTANT STEP: If you click on 9 dots (Show Applications), you should see icon for "Software Update" (spinning circle with A on it). Click on it and ensure all the pending updates are installed
Once all the software updates are completed, open terminal and run following command - sudo apt install gcc make perl
Then click on Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD image
While guest addition is being installed keep focused eye on the output. If any dependencies is missing, you will see it on the screen. If all dependencies are resolved the auto-run should install the guest additions for you and clearly state that install additions will not activate until restart.
Restart the OS and you should see full screen on load.
With latest VirtualBox version 6.1.4, the above did not work as the issue was in Guest Additions 6.1.4. Installing Guest Additions 6.1.5 from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Testbuilds solved the problem. For details refer -https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/19336
Also I had to assign more display memory. After logging in I have to press Ctrl + F or view > full screen to let the screen scale.
Hope this helps!
I googled before and found that by turning on the "Enable copy and paste" under Guest Isolation, I can copy/cut/paste text from guest to host and vice versa. But I don't see "Guest Isolation" after clicking on Player->Manage->virtual machine settings->option. I have tried to install the VMware tools and I seem to have successfully installed it, but still no use. Is this feature only available in VMware pro?
For Ubuntu (Guest OS), you need to install open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop.
sudo apt install open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop
Some versions of vmware-tools are buggy (copy&paste does not work). Try an older version (they can be downloaded for free from vmware.com).
Note that newer Linux distributions already include the vmware-tools. They may not be installed by default (see this answer).
I am trying to create custom vagrant box file. I plan to use VirtualBox and I am reading this documentation: https://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/virtualbox/boxes.html
When the doc says,"VirtualBox Guest Additions must be installed so that things such as shared folders can function. Installing guest additions also usually improves performance since the guest OS can make some optimizations by knowing it is running within VirtualBox.
Before installing the guest additions, you'll need the linux kernel headers and the basic developer tools ...", but it doesn't say if this is to be done on the guest OS or host OS where I installed vargant and VirtualBox.
So I am guessing that I need to install a VM on VirtualBox and install the "VirtualBox Guest Addtitions" on this VM. Am I right?
The guest additions need to be installed on the guest OS. The host operating system only needs Virtualbox and vagrant installed. There are various descriptions out there for different operating systems and versions. It depends a bit on what your guest os looks like, so without a hint on what guest OS you are installing, I cannot provide more information.
Just FYI: You can use the boxes from vagrantcloud.com as a base, boot it and install softwareon top, exporting it to create "your" base box. In most cases, this works pretty well and you don't need to set up a whole new box. Take a look at the featured boxes, e.g. from chef. Chef boxes are the most basic setup one can create with really just the OS and the things vagrant need (ssh key, guest additions and so on).
I got a repo where I take a chef box and add some of my standard software stack (using chef) and export it as a new box. Have a look at Sgoettschkes/va for more information.
I installed Mountain Lion and then I tried to run and then got this error:
The virtual machine cannot enter Unity mode because:
- The guest operating system does not have VMware Tools installed.
- The guest operating system's resolution cannot be changed.
Then I try to update tools:
Could not find component on update server.
Contact VMware Support or your system administrator.
Arkadi's answer is right, here are the detailed actions:
(See also this post for more snapshots)
Download darwin.iso.
Right click your virtual machine in vmware
Click the settings menu item
Select CD/DVD item in the left UI
On the right UI, select and mount the darwin.iso.
Now, the vmware tools installation is started in your Mac OSX virtual machine:
You can download VMWare Tools and graphic driver from here:
VMware_Tools
Graphic Driver - VMsvga2
The links supplied in Boris M answer points to software that is outdated and opens ad-ware sites in browser after install.
Here are the official darwin.iso (9MB) and darwin.iso.sig files from VMware Fusion 6.0.4 for Mac. Put it into vmware/isoimages/ folder next to other ISO files.
Unfortunately, VM > Install VMware Tools menu entry still won't work, so attach the ISO manually and install the package.